Implications run deep as baby boomers retire

Catholic Health has seen nearly three years of growth in the annual number of retirees. That’s no accident.

The first wave of baby boomers are reaching their mid-60s, a trend that is expected to swell retirement numbers nationally and affect everything from the job market to the demand on health-care systems to the future viability of New Deal institutions such as Medicare and Social Security.

Retirements at Catholic Health are up 56 percent since a dip after the recession hit in 2008, said Michael Moley, senior vice president/chief human resources officer.

He wouldn’t give exact numbers of retirees, but with an organization such as Catholic Health that employs more than 6,000, the percentage change is substantial.

“It could be said that what Catholic Health is seeing, what is taking place, is the baby boomers are starting to retire at a rate far exceeding past experiences,” Moley said. “We are seeing rates doubled what they were in the mid-2000s.”

It’s a trend the organization cannot ignore, especially when retirements often come in critical jobs.

A proactive training program, based on predicted turnover, is already taking place. A parallel recruiting strategy has also been developed. The organization is partnering with educational institutions to make sure Buffalo-based workers have the skills the organization needs.

“If you don’t want to become vulnerable, you have to put these strategic initiatives into place well ahead of time,” Moley said.

The number of Americans age 65 and over is expected to double between 2000 and 2030, to 70 million, according to statistics compiled by the Life Options Institute and whatsnextinyourlife.com, an online lifestyle resource for people over 50.

Those people are many things: a burgeoning consumer group for everyone from retailers to health-care providers; a political force with which to be increasingly reckoned; and an unprecedented strain on Social Security and Medicare, which federal agencies have predicted could run out by 2024 on its current path.

“The amount of money individuals have to save over the course of their working lives is really tremendous, and they bear tremendous risk,” said Steven Sass, associate director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. “It is a really difficult financing problem for a society.”

One key to the problem will be encouraging people to work longer, which will leave them with more money in the end, according to Sass. That’s money they’ll likely need, given the near-certainty of cuts to Social Security benefits. Retirees also need to be conscious of their choices and of the value of their assets, especially their homes, he said.

People are waiting longer to retire since the recession seems to have instilled a deep sense of financial uncertainty, said Patrick Sgroi, president of West Seneca-based Sgroi Financial. They are also stretching out their retirement payouts to fund health insurance until they turn 65 and are available for Medicare.

“It’s not that they’re not retiring,” Sgroi said. “It’s that they’re working a little bit longer than they’d hoped.”